A Dog's Tale: A Mexican Parable 1986

Directed by Caroline Leaf

Is a version of an age old verbal teaching tool, the parable. Traditionally an oral form of storytelling used to transmit moral insights, the parable concisely expresses a human dilemma with a surprise twist at the end. The narrator in this film is a streetwise dog who observes the social life of a Mexican market from its underside. He tells a story about a prosperous merchant in the market who was once also out on the street and who was refused a street sweeper's job because he could not read or write. The dog's point is that ingenuity and motivation can be as important to success as more conventionally measured qualifications. The actors are Bob Pot and Grant Heisler.